Production on the latest entry in the exotic dance franchise is now underway in London, starring Channing Tatum and with Steven Soderbergh returning to direct after skipping “Magic Mike XXL.” “It’s going to be pretty bonkers,” co-creator and executive producer Tatum told The New York Times in a recent interview. “We’re kind of swinging for the fences — there never needs to be another stripper movie after this one.” While “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” is expected to be an untraditional love story with a female lead, Tatum gave a few more plot details: “We’re trying to do a fish-out-of-water story where it’s a reverse-role ‘Pretty Woman’ story that ends up with a lot of dancing in it,” the “Lost City” star shared.
Producing partner Reid Carolin previously said that “Magic Mike 3” will be about “a woman stuck at a horrible strip show like a Chippendales and then realizing, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’” only to be rescued by Magic Mike (Tatum). “She gets to go down the rabbit hole and asks: What do I really want?,” Carolin added.
Related Salma Hayek: Channing Tatum Lap Dance Was ‘Physically Challenging’ in ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ Will End with a 30-Minute Dance Sequence Related 24 Famously Queer and Homoerotic Horror Movies, from ‘Psycho’ to ‘Hellraiser’ Oscars 2023: Can Anyone Top ‘Maverick’ in Best Sound?
The origin of the third film can be charted back to Soderbergh, who convinced Tatum to go for one “Last Dance” as Magic Mike.
“In my opinion, we had chewed up all the meat on the bone, story-wise,” Tatum told IndieWire. “We didn’t plan on making a second one. Then all of our ancillary characters were so good and fun that we felt like, ‘Let’s do another movie and give those characters more real estate that we didn’t have before.’ Once we did that, we felt like there was no other story. Let’s just like get out of jail.”
Tatum noted that he actually prefers the second film, “Magic Mike XXL,” to the first one. “It’s more fun and I think more of what people expected the first film to be,” the “Dog” director said.
It wasn’t until the Magic Mike live shows in Las Vegas that Tatum realized he could change the “kind of dark and weird” behind-the-scenes atmosphere of male stripping.
Thus, “Magic Mike 3” was the answer to revolutionize “what that experience could be for women.” Tatum said, “We went out and actually made it with women. It was an education. What we made is today my favorite thing that we’ve made in our careers.”
As for a fourth film? “The only one I said I’d actually do — before we decided on this version — was the ‘Grumpy Old Men’ version when we’re like 70,” Tatum concluded. “When we’re 70, I want to get the team back together, for sure.”
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
